silica

Etymology

Origin: 1585–95; in Latin silex (“hard stone, flint”). Subsequently, silicon was identified by the chemist Antoine Lavoisier in 1787 as a component element of the silex or silicis. Compare silicate.

noun

  1. Silicon dioxide.
  2. Any of the silica group of the silicate minerals.
    Its Blair County property was sited at the foot of ganister-covered Dunnings Mountain to compete with the Mount Union plants making silica bricks for the steel industry. 1993, Historic American Building Survey, Town of Clayburg: Refractories Company Town, National Park Service, 2

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